Grace and Peace

I don't scan the press everyday, (I usually let the Fox News Network and radio news bulletins keep me up to date on current affairs) but today I perused the news online and found the following article.  Since it dealt with my home state, I stopped to read the entire piece, which I have copied below for you:

Senator attempts to remove Bibles from chapel
Feb 9, 2005
By Erin Curry

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A Democratic state senator ordered his staff to remove a cross, Bibles and hymnals from the nondenominational chapel in the rotunda of the North Carolina legislative building, saying the Christian emphasis was inappropriate in a public building used by people of different faiths.

But a higher-ranking senator reversed Sen. Tony Rand's decision Feb. 3 after Republican lawmakers complained.

"The cross and the Bible are going back in the chapel," Norma Mills, chief of staff for Senate President Marc Basnight, said, according to The Charlotte News & Observer.

In recent years, a group of lawmakers began holding weekly services in the chapel, bringing with them privately donated Bibles, hymnals and a cross, which they left in the room. Rand was not opposed to such services, but he said worshipers should take their items with them when they leave to avoid offending lawmakers of other religions.

"If they want to bring [such items] to their services, they're welcome to do that," Rand said. "It should retain its nondenominational character. It's not a church. It's a public place for whoever wants to communicate with one's maker."

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., told The News & Observer that Rand was probably correct in banning the permanent display of religious material.

"Not only is it probably the sensitive thing to do to keep the chapel available to all, but it may also be the First Amendment thing to do," Haynes said. "To have it displayed does send a message that this is a particular place for a particular religion. I think [Rand] is giving good advice, although it is not a popular thing to say in North Carolina."

It seems shocking that the cross and the Bible could stir such a contest among state legislators.  Particularly when you stop and think of all the offensive things that come across our path every day. Bumper stickers, tee shirts, billboards and the like proclaim products and messages that should cause us to blush.  The language that one hears in the hallway and over the airwaves almost curls your hair.  But the Bible and the cross, when did they become offensive?

In truth, they have been all along.  For nearly two thousand years, men and women have been offended by the message of the cross as contained in God's Word. Paul, in his letter to the church at Corinth, helps us see the truth:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 NIV)

All I can say is, "Thank God for the cross!"